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BISMARCK — The North Dakota Department of Health's public information director has resigned over comments she inadvertently posted from the department's official Twitter account during the first U.S. presidential debate, calling it a "dreadful mistake." Colleen Reinke offered her resignation immediately after the incident Monday, Sept. 26, and it was accepted as of 8 a.m. Wednesday, according to emails provided by Human Resources Director Dirk Wilke in response to an open records request.

BISMARCK — Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem on Tuesday gave the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline 30 days to explain how it intends to use thousands of acres of ranchland purchased last week around the pipeline route in Morton County — and how it complies with the state's anti-corporate farming law.

BISMARCK — A proposal to give juveniles in North Dakota's tribal courts access to the same services available to those in the state court system could improve strained relations between the tribes and state government, a tribal official said Monday before a committee voted to advance the bill draft. "I think this is a great step forward," Mark Nygard, chief executive officer for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, told the Legislature's interim Tribal and State Relations Committee.

BISMARCK — The company building the Dakota Access Pipeline has purchased 20 parcels of land totaling several thousand acres just north of where protesters of the four-state pipeline are encamped on federally owned land and where the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe claims sacred sites were distributed by pipeline construction, property records show. Dakota Access LLC bought the land from cattle ranchers David and Brenda Meyer of nearby Flasher for an undisclosed sum, according to the warranty deed filed with the Morton County Recorder's Office.

BISMARCK — Officials spearheading a decades-old effort to divert Missouri River water to eastern North Dakota during droughts said they've revived a cheaper water intake option as their preferred alternative and will scale back their request for state funding in light of slumping tax revenues. But they said they hope lawmakers will still provide enough money to start construction on the Red River Valley Water Supply Project during the 2017-19 biennium so it can be grandfathered in before new federal regulations that could delay the project take effect.

BISMARCK — Opponents of a North Dakota ballot measure that would expand crime victims' rights and write them into the state constitution have formed a campaign committee chaired by former attorney general and district judge Robert Wefald of Bismarck. "This is simply bad constitutional law," Wefald said Wednesday, Sept. 21, at a Capitol press conference announcing the "No on 3" committee. The group opposes Marsy's Law for North Dakota, which will be listed as Measure 3 on the Nov. 8 statewide ballot.

BISMARCK — The state Emergency Commission voted Wednesday, Sept. 21, to borrow up to $6 million from the state-owned Bank of North Dakota to support law enforcement efforts related to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, but not before members blasted the lack of federal support to deal with protesters camped out on federal land.

BISMARCK — Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault II on Tuesday, Sept. 20, brought the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline to Geneva, Switzerland, asking members of the United Nations Human Rights Commission to condemn "the deliberate destruction of our sacred places." Archambault told the commission the 1,172-mile, $3.8 billion pipeline that would move 450,000 barrels of crude daily from the Bakken oil fields to a hub in Illinois "threatens our communities, the river and the earth."

BISMARCK — A joint task force led by the Morton County Sheriff's Department is investigating a Sept. 3 clash between protesters of the Dakota Access Pipeline and the pipeline's private security personnel, the sheriff's office said Tuesday, Sept. 20. The investigation is focusing not only on protesters but also whether the private security guards were licensed and whether their actions were warranted, county spokesman Rob Keller said.